Acela Express train service will be shut down from New York to Boston through Sunday

Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express service between New York and Boston is shut down today due to a power problem in the New York area, and will remain out of service at least through Sunday, Amtrak says.

The railroad said it would add extra cars to regular Northeast Regional trains to accommodate people who planned to take the Acela. Delays should be expected due to the use of diesel locomotives.

Amtrak said there was a “commercial power problem” with the utility providing the power, Con Edison, and the railroad would resume normal operations “as quickly and safely as possible” when power is restored.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

The railroad said it would decide later whether service would resume on Monday.

Traffic built along Interstate 95 in the New York area this morning as tens of thousands of Metro-North Railroad commuters scrambled for alternate routes to get to work between Connecticut and New York City, the Associated Press reported.

A high-voltage feeder cable failed early Wednesday at a suburban New York station, knocking out power to Metro-North’s New Haven line, the AP reported. The broken circuit could take two to three weeks to repair, the New York-based utility Consolidated Edison said.

The outage forced the cancellation of Acela service because the electric-powered Acela runs in Metro-North territory for part of its journey from New York to Boston, Amtrak said.

“When operating over a host railroad’s territory, in this case, Metro-North, Amtrak must follow all rules and regulations set forth by the host railroad. In this case, we are unable to operate our electrically powered Acela trains, due to an incident involving the loss of overhead wire power on their property,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said in an e-mail.

Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains are expected to operate normally south of New York to Washington, D.C., the railroad said Wednesday night in a statement.